by Fr. John Dear, S.J.
Pax Christi USA Ambassador of Peace
Last week, Dr. Robert J. Lifton, the esteemed psychiatrist and author of many important books such as The Nazi Doctors, Hiroshima in America and Destroying the World to Save It, published a long, brilliant essay about the moral ramifications of drones. In “Ten Reflections on Drones” (Part One, Part Two), Lifton argues that we better start grappling with the effects of drones in our lives and get rid of them before they take us to entirely new levels of psychic numbing and global violence.
“I seek to begin a conversation about our relationship as human beings to these robotic objects as weapons,” Lifton writes.
Like many, I, too, have been long pondering the omnipresence of drones, the Obama administration’s criminal commitment to drones and their subtle effect on all our lives. Since my arrest at the Creech Air Force Base, the national drone headquarters, and my recent trip to Afghanistan, where I heard many stories of relatives who lost loved ones from our drones, I’m convinced these drones are destroying us, too — spiritually. As someone once said, “Those who live by the sword will die by the sword.”
I think all those who care for peace should study Lifton’s 10 points about drones. Here is a shortened version of his 10 “meditations” on drones and the illusion that they work…